A $68-million project led by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that was meant to revamp Canada's outdated asylum system and enhance the integrity of the country's borders was quietly shut down last year — an "unexpected" move for some in the government because it was only partly completed, internal documents show.

Now, some critics fear the outcomes that were achieved may be more harmful than beneficial for people seeking protection in Canada.

IRCC's "asylum interoperability project" began in 2019 and was supposed to wrap up by 2022. It came during a surge of asylum seekers entering Canada, putting pressure on an already struggling system that relied heavily on paper files. Its launch followed calls for major reform .

The main goals of the project was "to transform

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